The following report was written and submitted by ITH reader Dave Haskins (GFDave), who got a chance to watch Victor Oladipo on Wednesday night. If you attend games of IU signees, commitments or potential recruits, send us a report to tips@insidethehall.com and it may appear in this very space.

GFDave and son watched DeMatha destroy Bishop O’Connell 83-55 last night. We attended the game to see Victor Olapido play and I want to share what we saw with the ITH gang.

First, VO had a quiet night. He had six points and I’d guess he had seven boards, a couple of assists and maybe four blocks. Everything that people have heard and seen about VO’s athleticism is 100% true. He moves exceptionally well and with a deceptively smooth gait that belies how fast he really is going. On one play he ran the fast break backwards so he could keep his eye on the ball which was straight behind him. He still beat everybody down the court.

I think it was Al McGuire that used the phrase “foot jumper” to describe players that could come down with a rebound and immediately explode back up without having to gather or coil. VO is a foot jumper big time. Very, very quick back to the rim.

He has a rangy frame, long arms and probably is a legit 6′ 4″. I’d guess he weighs 190. His body should take well to weight training and gaining 10-15 pounds of muscle.

DeMatha is loaded with talent, as Cooper pointed out in his post on VO. They do not run any offense for VO. His job is to bring energy (which he does big time), get out on the break, hit the boards, block shots and rebound. He had a number of blocks last night that came out of nowhere; the ball would be on its way to the hoop unabated and suddenly VO would sky and send it somewhere else. He worked the boards hard too.

He sees the court well and doesn’t try to do too much. He justifiably has little confidence in his jump shot and doesn’t look to take it. But he reverses the ball well and finds open cutters. His ball handling skills are below par for a wing player. On defense he kept his eye on the belly button of his man if he had the ball, and otherwise did a good job of keeping awareness of his man, the ball and cutters.

He did not have a good offensive game and I think he got a little frustrated with himself. He scored 6 points; 2 on a massive one-handed alley-oop dunk, and 2 on the only two free throws he took.

Mike Jones, the DeMatha coach, is good. They run the up-tempo, drive and kick game so prevelant these days. They have the horses for it. He doesn’t say too much and in the huddles he gave his team just one or two things to think about. My favorited quote was: “We’re not going to walk the ball up. Get it out quick and jam it down their throats.” My kind of guy.

Finally, VO is extremely well liked by the DeMatha people. We sat directly behind the bench and spoke with a number of people who think that he is just a great kid. VO was Co-Captain for the game, maybe for the year, I don’t know. You can tell he is a quiet leader on a very, very good team.

Sounds like he might be somewhat of a Jimmy Thomas-type player. For years, JT held the rebounding record at IU. That was always a safe bar bet. Who would suspect the “other Thomas” of being such a prolific rebounder?

GFDave

I forgot to include that it was hard to say anything about him being a defensive stopper since the competition was too inferior to make any judgments in that regard. A DeMatha booster behind me said that they routinely will put VO on the opponent's best non-post player in the fourth quarter. Sort of a “winning time” strategy. Why they don't do that all game, I don't know. But DeMatha is deep and they don't lose many matchups.

Great post Dave. Do any of the ITH guys have the schedule for Sagemont? I live in Tampa which is nowhere near the school but if they come play in this area and I can make it I'll try to see Sheehy play and give a report.

I watched the ESPN televised game and VO ended up with 15 points and 17 REBOUNDS. Cant wait to see him fly in AH.

scout

I also watched the game on MLK Jr day when DeMatha played Mater Dei. I liked VO's ability to play on both ends of the floor. He always was back on the defensive end contributed to many deflections, a couple of blocks but also helped shut down fast breaks, as Mater Dei was the much smaller team but very quick and able to shoot the 3 extremely well. I also didn't see many times where he was out matched defending against UCLA signee Tyler Lamb. On the offensive end he showed quick ups when given passes close to the basket and twice had a nice dunk under the basket where some guys might want to lay it in. Solid rebounder for his team. Plays the 'glue guy' nicely. Took a few deep jumpers and 3s which was good to see because I hear he has been working hard in that area.

My worry, as far as the impact he can make as a freshmen, is if you can realistically have him on the court for any decent amount of time with Rivers. We know, unless something drastic changes, River will be on the court a lot again next year.

Very tough to play with two guys on the perimeter that can't hit a shot outside of the paint. I'm still excited about VO's athleticism, and they should be effective together when the team needs to press and force turnovers, so there will be lineups where it's effective.

ronb

My hope is during the off season Doc teaches that boy to shoot. If not, we may see Rivers only as a defensive stopper with Hulls,Jones and Creek and others playing ahead of him. At the very least he needs to hit his free ones. A point guard shooting 30% from the field,unable to shoot from 3 and 50%at the charity stripe just isn't getting it done. He becomes a huge problem at crunch time. We got to know the other teams are going to take advantage of us.

HoosierFromCT

He will be one hell of an improvement off the bench compared to Dumes. No disrespect to Dumes, but all he's got is the 3. If it's not falling, he's worthless. VO will being in high flying dunks, exciting blocks, and much needed energy plays. I'm happy to get him

GFDave

I didn't see the game, but VO had 14 points last night in another victory. He is averaging 11 per game.